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Yes, it does. OK, we'll come clean and admit it: we cheated. We looked at an actual tube of toothpaste and saw an expiration date. But it was one of those fancy, natural products from the folks at Tom's of Maine -- we figured that their ingredients would naturally require an expiration date. But, what about other types of toothpaste? Do they ever expire? Yes, they do. We stopped in at a colleague's cube and grabbed his tube of Gleem, a Procter & Gamble product. Expiration date? Yes. Apparently, P&G's toothpaste also expires. If there's a point to our answer, it's this: sometimes it's better to just look at the writing on the tube. However, since we get paid to go online for answers, we did
just that, searching on the keywords "toothpaste expiration." The results led us to a Newcity Chicago article that profiles Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey. Ms. Dempsey has been asked the same question you asked us, and her crack staff of librarians found an answer. Apparently, after toothpaste expires, "the chemicals become unstable and less effective." Now you know.
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